Margaret Sanger's Autobiography

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Margaret Sanger

"Women are too much inclined to follow in the footsteps of men, to try to think as men think, to try to solve the general problems of life as men solve them…The woman is not needed to do man's work. She is not needed to think man's thoughts…Her mission is not to enhance the masculine spirit, but to express the feminine; hers is not to preserve a man-made world, but to create a human world by the infusion of the feminine element into all of its activities." I am Margaret Sanger and this is how I feel. God put us on this world not to follow in the footsteps of someone else but to create our own. Before I go on and tell you all of my opinions, I must explain to all of you, how I came to be this way. I will explain to you my life story.

I was born September 14, 1879 in Corning, New York. My desire for women to have more freedom began way before the public had ever heard of me. It arose when I was just a little girl. My parents were a great influence on me and very supportive of any decision that I made. My father provided me with all the mental tools I needed for my life to be a success. My father was a radical. He taught me to question everything and stand up for whatever I believed. My mom was a great woman herself. Although she dealt with a lot of children and didn't have a lot of time for each of us, I loved her dearly. My mother had passed away at quite an early age from tuberculosis, which was due to the amount of kids she bore. There were no contraceptives in that day and age. Due to my mothers death it made me come to the conclusion that I wanted to work with pregnant women. I had a need to help women who were either in the position my mom was in, or were just in need of help. In 1896 I attended Claverack College and Hudson River Institute. I then entered the nursing program at White Plains hospital at which time I met my husband, an architect, William Sanger. After finishing the nursing program I obtained a job as a nurse in the ghettos of New York. I dealt with a lot of horrible sights.

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